1408 acres land allotted for wind corridor of Thatta

The government of Sindh has allotted 1408 acres of land in the Wind Corridor of Thatta District for development of 49.5 MW Wind Energy project by Master Wind Energy Limited. The signing ceremony was organized in the Energy Department. The lease document was signed by Brig (r) Tariq Izaz on behalf of the Master Wind Energy Ltd.

An investment of 130 million dollars has been arranged through local and foreign financing for the project. The major portion of the project costs will be provided by Overseas Private Investment Corporation, USA (OPIC) and the rest of the project financing has been arranged by a consortium of local banks. The project will start its commercial operations in July 2016, and enhance the capacity of national grid by adding 142.1GWh of electricity every year.

The construction contract of the project has been awarded to Powerchina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited (a Chinese company), which will install 33 turbines of 1,5MW each. The wind turbines will be supplied by General Electric. The NEPRA has already awarded the fixed tariff to the project company, whereas NTDC has also confirmed power evacuation from the project site. The project will support the international concerns to reduce the environmental degradation.

The identified potential in the wind corridor is about 55,000, out of which only 156.4MW has so far been tapped and supplied to national grid, which is less than 1 % of the total generation mix. The government of Sindh is providing a level playing field to local and international investors.

The Energy Department is aggressively pursuing the development of power projects and has introduced various measures.

which include policy and technical issues, developer support framework, development of enabling infrastructure, structuring incentives for investors, collection of bankable data, one-window facilitation for investors and project developers, seeking technical support from international institutions, and attracting top manufacturers from North America, Europe, and China.